Scientists believe that the ability to control dreams, a skill that many people strive to acquire for sheer pleasure, may - if taken seriously - reveal new, previously unknown secrets about the human mind.

British writer David Robson says, in a report published by the British newspaper The Guardian, that there is currently a thriving community in the virtual space of many people who are trying to learn how to control their dreams and make them more vivid, and for example, one of the blogs dedicated to this phenomenon includes more From 400 thousand people.

Robson, who has written a recent book, The Anticipation Effect: How Your Thinking Can Change Your Life, asserts that many of these people are simply looking for fun, as it is "very exciting and really unbelievable to be in a lucid dream, and to follow your mind as it creates This is a completely live simulation," according to Michelle Carr, an American sleep researcher at the University of Rochester, New York State.

Many hope that their dream control skills will increase their abilities in reality (Getty Images)

Dream control

Others hope that practicing their dream control skills will increase their abilities in real life, as "many elite athletes use lucid dreams to practice their sport."

There are also more profound reasons for exploiting this state of sleep than simply developing personal abilities, and psychologists and neuroscientists hope to answer basic questions about the nature of human consciousness, including our seemingly unique ability to self-awareness, by determining the activity of The brain that leads to increased awareness and a sense of the ability to control lucid dreams.

This interest in lucid dreams has grown irregularly for more than a century, and although Sigmund Freud was fascinated by the interaction between the conscious and subconscious mind, he hardly touched on the subject of lucid dreams in his writings, and it was the English aristocratic writer Mary Arnold Forster who presented one of the oldest The most detailed descriptions in English of this issue are in her book Studies in Dreams.

The book, published in 1921, explored countless miscellaneous adventures in the dream landscape, including a charming description of the author's attempts to fly in her sleep. "A slight rowing motion with my hand enables me to increase the speed of the flight and use it either to be able to rise to greater heights or to For the purpose of guidance, especially through narrow passages such as crossing through a gate or window.

Lucid dreams represent a completely different mental experience from the negative state of lucid dreams (Getty Images)

double consciousness

Based on her experiences, Arnold Forster concluded that humans have a "double consciousness", one of which is the "primary self" that allows one to analyze his circumstances and apply logic to what he is going through, but it is usually inactive during sleep, leaving us with a dream consciousness that cannot be It reflects its own state, but in conscious dreams this first ego "wakes up" bringing with it "memories, knowledge of facts, and chains of thought", as well as the realization that one is asleep.

Robson believes that scientists today may reject the term "double consciousness", but most of them agree that lucid dreams involve increased self-awareness and thinking, and a greater sense of strength, will and ability to think about the past and the far future, which together represent a completely different mental experience from the negative state. Typical of unlucky dreams.